Especially when you consider pro-blogging, or blogging with a definite aim and niche, what is the ideal word count to stick around for your average article, and how often is it a good compromise to blog, as to keep your audience coming for more but not overwhelm them?

Are there days in a week better to publish posts, and is it really important to stick always to the same weekdays?

This is an extremely broad question. Can you narrow it down with at least a genre? There's going to be a difference depending on your aims, target audience, etc. Asking for an ideal blog post size and frequency is like asking for the ideal word count for a novel, any novel.
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justktNov 29 '11 at 13:41

I was hoping for a ballpark figure. See this question on chapter length for instance, I think chapters would better translate into blog posts. So asking the word count for a novel (or short-story) would be more like asking 'how long should a blog post series be?'--to which the answer of course is as long as it needs to be.
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Vic GoldfeldNov 29 '11 at 13:45

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I do think that there are some golden rules in pro-blogging, and that experienced bloggers here might be able to give that range from their experience, regardless of genre. It's more a question of human attention span and reader engagement.
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Vic GoldfeldNov 29 '11 at 13:47

6 Answers
6

The correct answer is as few words as possible to make your point. The longer the blog, the more readers that you will lose. If you have too much to say, then break it up into multiple blogs...like a series of blogs providing more depth. As a general rule, < 200 words is a good standard. This response was a bit over 60 words.

Length: Max. 300 words for me. No limit on images and the works.
Frequency: As a rule, post a blog every time you feel strongly about something, and do it while it's hot. Readers love topicality and passionate writing.
If there are thumb rules, I would not want to know of any that distract me from saying what I want to when I want to (and all that I want to).

Frequency - as often as you need it. Quantity of words - whatever number you need to make your point.

Each of these are separate variables that are going to change depending on the topic, the objective you hope to reach with your post, and the audience. There are so many factors that come into play when it comes to starting up and maintaining a successful blog.

More important questions you need to be asking yourself are things like this:

Who is my intended audience?

What is my blog site about?

Why would people come to my site in the first place?

How can I draw more people to my site?

There are many other important considerations as well, and they far outweight the frequency and volume of your posts. Content is king, so make that your focus, but you also need to have a game plan for how you intend to grow your audience. If you go in believing that all you have to do is build it and they will come, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

I concur that you should post at least once a day, to keep your audience returning. How long each post should be is dependent on your audience and your content (and your willingness/time to write, of course).

Take a look at the vast differences in posting frequency and length at Freethought Blogs. Camels With Hammers frequently veers into tl;dr territory, PZ and Ed Brayton usually post many many short entries with additional links, and Greta Christina goes from two-photo posts to lengthy analyses to recipes. Each blog has its own audience (there's obviously a lot of overlap, but they're not identical), and each audience has its own preferences.

Once you build an audience, ask them for feedback. Until then, write however much or little makes you feel comfortable.

The ideal frequency is every day. The ideal word count is as many words you need to make your point clear, but no word more than that.

No, you do not have to post every day, no, you do not have to stick to a special weekday. But keep in mind, if you want to be a pro, you should build up a backlog.

When the best day for publishing is, can only your audience say, but it really doesn't matter. The good thing with the internet is, that you can post when you have time to do it, and they can read it when they have time.

If you want a more detailed answer, reread justkt's comment to your question.